Race No. 7
Miller Lite 200
The Milwaukee Mile
West Allis, Wisconsin
June 4-6, 1999
Friday Quotes from Milwaukee: |
Forsythe Player's/Indeck Reynard Mercedes Practice Position: 2nd |
| GREG MOORE | |
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It's great to have three Canadians at 1-2-3. Naturally,
I'd like to be No. 1, but I'll take No. 2. I remember the same thing
happened here two years ago.
We were strong in both the morning and afternoon sessions. We still managed to put in 47 laps in traffic the afternoon session, even though we were reduced to a little less than a half-hour of practice time because of the rain earlier in the afternoon. We've done some work on our race set-up and we should be very competitive come Sunday. | |
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Kmart/Texaco/Havoline Swift Ford Practice Position: 11th |
| MICHAEL ANDRETTI | |
|
It was a good day for us. We didn't run a set of fresh tires at the end of the session.
A lot of the guys out there did in an attempt to put up a fast time.
Overall, I am very happy. The car felt good.
HOW MUCH DID THE TRACK CHANGE AFTER THE RAIN WE SAW BETWEEN THE SESSIONS? A lot. The track went really loose. I would say that midway through the session tomorrow the track should be back to the condition that it was as this morning. ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT HAVING TO STAND ON YOUR TIMES FROM THIS MORNING IF THE RAIN BECOMES A PROBLEM FOR QUALIFYING TOMORROW? Not at all. I was tenth this morning. We can win from there. | |
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MCI Worldcom Arciero-Wells Reynard Toyota Practice Position: 12th |
| CHRISTIANO DA MATTA | |
| We had a good car this morning, and we just tried some different things this afternoon. The rain didn't really affect the track conditions. We took the car in some new directions this afternoon, but none of them worked. I'm not too worried, because the car is basically good. I really think we'll be in good shape tomorrow. This place is very round and simple all the way around. There's nothing too distinct about the turns, so as a driver I have to stay focused to keep the car in the right line. Doing well here just comes down to set-up. If we can get the car set-up right, we will do okay. | |
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Pioneer Arciero-Wells Reynard Toyota Practice Position: 28th |
| SCOTT PRUETT | |
| It's been a tough day. We tried a lot of different things to get the car's balance just right, and we're not there yet. The car's uncomfortable, but it's always uncomfortable. It's supposed to be that way to a certain extent. But there are different levels of comfort, and we're looking for a higher level. | |
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Kmart/Texaco Havoline Newman/Haas Racing Swift Ford Practice Position: 6th |
| CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI | |
|
We had a pretty trouble free session. I would say the session was a bit screwed up with the rain.
I couldn't get a clean lap with all of the traffic out there. The engine ran
really well for us though. It seems to be making the power we need.
DID THE RAIN FORCE YOU TO MAKE ANY SETUP CHANGES FOR THE AFTERNOON SESSION? The rain didn't really hurt us that much. The change in weather didn't force us to change the setup on the car at all. | |
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Miller Lite Team Rahal Reynard Ford Practice Position: 8th |
| MAX PAPIS | |
|
We went out this morning to check the condition of the track and it changed
on us after the rain a bit.
I think we had a car better suited to the morning's track conditions rather
than the conditions of the afternoon. Right now we have the car balanced on
a knife's edge. With the wings that we are running it makes it more
difficult to get the right setup. Finding the best setup for the car is more
of a situation where you need to compromise.
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE HARLEY DAVIDSON PAINT JOB ON YOUR MILLER LITE FORD? I like the flames on my car. They are very American. | |
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Shell Team Rahal Reynard Ford Practice Position: 20th |
| BRYAN HERTA | |
|
That was kind of a weird session.
Most of the guys running in the session were running on full fuel loads.
Although we put together a top-ten time at the end of the session I am still
not quite happy with where we right now. We still have some improving to
do.
HOW MUCH DID THE TRACK CHANGE AFTER THE NOON SHOWERS WE HAD? The grip changed. It was not that we had more or less grip but the track had a different feel to it. The grip was in a little different place I think. | |
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Team Kool Green Reynard Honda Practice Position: 17th |
| DARIO FRANCHITTI | |
| We are still struggling for balance in setting up the car. We were a bit frustrated this morning because we did not get a clear lap. We still have a lot to do to sort our problems out. I'll sit down with the Team KOOL Green engineers to get it figured out tonight. Race-wise, I don't think the car is too bad. We have a couple of small problems for qualifying. We'll need to up the pace a little bit. | |
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Team Kool Green Reynard Honda Practice Position: 1st |
| PAUL TRACY | |
| We're first on the day and the Team KOOL Green car is great. We didn't use up any of our tires. The car was very good on old tires and now we've got an extra set (of tires) saved for the race, which is great. My experience here has been a big help here. My race engineer Tony Cicale was saying that we've got to slowly work up to speed today. And, I said 'don't worry, I've been around here a few times'. The car was good right off the trailer. That's a tribute to Dario because he came here testing and it's basically his setup we're using. | |
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McDonald's
Forsythe Championship Racing Team Reynard Honda Practice Position: 22nd |
| TONY KANAAN | |
| I think we found a reasonable setup for today. Traffic was a factor, but we made a good improvement and we need to work smart now. This is a difficult track for us, and this is the first time I feel we have a competitive car here. | |
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Tecate Beer/Quaker State Patrick Racing Reynard Ford Practice Position: 23rd |
| ADRIAN FERNANDEZ | |
| The big thing is that we did not test here. We didn't manage to get a really good idea of where we are today. We have not had a good record here in the past so that doesn't help. Here we are battling both a push and a loose condition in the corners. So, at the end we made some corrections and the car got a lot better. At the end I could not make a clean lap. But at the end the car was pushing and we seemed to have solved the loose problem so at least we are on the right track. Tomorrow should be better. | |
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Forsythe Player's/Indeck Reynard Mercedes Practice Position: 3rd |
| PATRICK CARPENTIER | |
| Things went well. There was a slight oversteer problem this afternoon. We're working on it right now and if we can correct it we should be able to shave off close to a half-second. That would put us in a good position for Sunday's race. | |
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Hollywood Reynard Mercedes Practice Position: 9th |
| MAURICIO GUGELMIN | |
| In the morning we had the car set-up the way we had it at our Milwaukee test, with some adjustments. The car was behaving much better than I thought it would and I was pretty pleased. Between the sessions we worked on taking some of the push out of the car but we still have undesteer in the entry and exit of the corner. However, we did improve the mid-corner push. I'm sure that it will be a very tight grid. The series is so competitive right now -- it's important to keep any small gain that you have. The rain certainly didn't help us, but it's the same for everyone. I think we can improve tomorrow. | |
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Patrick Racing Visteon Swift Ford Practice Position: 19th |
| P.J. JONES | |
| The car has a little push. A little more than I would like to have right now. Overall we seem to be on the right path. We are not getting too excited or jumping up and down right now but we are on the right path. For us to be comfortable with where we are going now and not having tested here is a testament to the Visteon guys. It's a nice way to end the day. | |
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Epson Bettonhausen Motorsports Reynard Mercedes Practice Position: 34th |
| SHIGEAKI HATTORI | |
| This track is very different from the other oval tracks we've raced on so far this year because it is so flat. With no testing here, we are testing at the same time as practice, which makes it very hard. We'll work hard tonight to find more speed for tomorrow. | |
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Team Gordon Swift Toyota Practice Position: 24th |
| ROBBY GORDON | |
| Our Toyota motor is getting better every single weekend, but we're realistically not in any position to go for the pole. So we spent the day working on long runs. In the morning, we started with full tanks and ran almost 30 laps on the same set of tires. We're getting more and more comfortable with our Swift package. The weekend's starting out a lot like it did at St. Louis, where it didn't look good on the timesheets the first day. But we worked hard and found speed when it counted. It looks like that's where we're headed again this weekend. | |